ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, November 28, 1996            TAG: 9611290006
SECTION: EDITORIAL                PAGE: A30  EDITION: HOLIDAY 

STILL PLAYING CATCH-UP

WHO'S COOKING the turkey today? Odds are: a woman.

A dispatch from the gender gap arrived the other day - a new report on the economic and political status of Virginia women. Progress, it seems, remains slow.

The report shows that Virginia women rank 12th nationally in employment and earnings. That's nice, compared with neighboring North Carolina, ranked 33rd, and West Virginia, which came in last.

Virginia's ranking, however, is probably distorted by the high wages women earn in affluent Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. Even with the inclusion of Northern Virginia, Virginia women still earn an average 30 percent less than Virginia men - though one wonders with such comparisons whether factors like time taken off from careers are taken into account.

Meanwhile, the study shows that, politically speaking, Virginia women have been left behind, eating dust. The state ranks 42nd in the number of women holding elected office; 39th in overall women's political participation.

In the General Assembly, only 15 percent of legislators are women. And, again, Northern Virginia, which has elected most of the female lawmakers, tints the picture rosier than it otherwise would be. The assembly includes not a single woman from west of Lynchburg.

The release of the report, by the Washington-based Institute for Women's Policy Research, was accompanied by calls (from women) for improvements in the economic status of Virginia's downstate women. A Reston personnel consultant declared: ``If Virginia is not now first in the nation [in women's status], then our leaders need to ask themselves why.''

Right. But the overwhelming majority of the state's leaders are men. That will remain the case as long as Virginia women, for whatever reason, are lesser participants in the political process - less inclined than men even to register to vote, much less run for public office.

Year of the Soccer Mom notwithstanding, more Virginia women, particularly outside the urban crescent, need to get involved in politics. Men can help with the cooking.

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